In the first edition of the ranking published in 2022, 229 companies were selected. These were chosen from the 2021 Top 100 Corporate Flyers List, the Science-Based Targets (SBTi) database, and through a selection of European companies based upon market capitalisation, business travel commitments or reporting.

Last year’s list was kept as a template, although we removed a limited number of companies, if they were relatively small or did not fly much for business. We then decided to add large companies, susceptible to flying a lot for business. For the 17 countries chosen to be part of the 2023 ranking (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States), we included the countries’ largest companies in terms of employees, the top 10 companies by market capitalization, and the companies with the highest business travel emissions in the CDP dataset. 

The ranking now includes 322 companies. 

The ranking grades the 322 companies according to ten indicators, relating to air travel emissions, reduction targets and reporting. Each indicator was broken down into varying levels of success, which gave a company a specific amount of points. 

For example, for the first indicator on commitment (i.e. does a company have a reduction commitment and does it specifically mention business air travel), a company was awarded 0 points for no target, 0.5 points for a broad emissions reduction target, 1 point for a business travel emissions reduction target, and 1.5 points for an air travel emissions reduction target. 

For a detailed overview of the ten indicators and how many points were attributed for each level of success, please refer to Table 2 of the full briefing.

We divided the range for total score, which goes from -1 to 14 points, in four equal parts corresponding to categories A, B, C or D. Companies are categorised based on their total score. 

Points are deducted for not disclosing emissions and for being a major emitter (i.e. having business travel emissions above 280,000 tCO2). The minimum score (-1) represents a company which has no emissions reduction target, and either has no reporting or is a major emitter.

An A grade corresponds to a score of 10.5 points or above. A company with the grade B has a total score ranging from 6.5 to 10. The grade C was given to all those companies with a score between 3 and 6. And the lowest grade, D, was for all companies scoring 2.5 points or less.

The ranking was updated to include more companies this year (see question 1). In addition, we extended the number of indicators and the point system. The geographic scope was extended to include India.

As the impacts of climate change are more visible than ever, and the harmful effects of fossil-fueled aviation on the planet are clear, we tightened the criteria in this edition of the ranking. General company-wide targets, such as Scope 3 targets, were not considered relevant enough. We only granted points for targets specific to business travel. Similarly, we did not attribute points to target achievement dates after 2030. 

Two new indicators were added in this edition of the ranking. 0.5 points were attributed to companies reporting their corporate environmental data in CDP. CDP offers the most comprehensive standard and comparable dataset for company environmental data disclosure. Secondly, this year’s ranking looks at reporting of non-CO2 effects associated with business travel. Aviation’s non-CO2 effects are estimated to warm the atmosphere twice as much as its CO2 effects only. It is thus capital to make non-CO2 reduction a priority in the coming years. We have thus granted an additional 0.5 points to companies which report the full climate impacts of business flying, including non-CO2 effects.

We pay particular attention to the top emitting companies which do not have targets to reduce their business travel emissions. These include, in order, Volkswagen, KPMG International, Johnson & Johnson, Accenture, Siemens, IBM, Microsoft, Alphabet Inc, Merck & Co. and SAP.

The grade attributed to companies may have changed compared to 2022. In this case, an arrow is there to indicate if the company has moved up or down a category. 

All companies were contacted before the publication of the ranking. Any company wishing to submit additional data is free to do so. We will then review the data and update the ranking if relevant. 

In 2020 and 2021, companies’ total air travel emissions have decreased by 64% and 70%, respectively. Most of this is due to travel restrictions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but we note that companies’ emissions have not rebounded in the same way as commercial aviation emissions did. A meaningful corporate travel target should take 2019 (or a previous year) as a baseline rather than 2020 and 2021. We have decided to publish emissions data from 2019 as this is more representative of companies’ air travel when they have been free to fly. 

Companies may find themselves attributed a “broad target” even though they include business travel in a target they have set. This is because targets that include business travel together with other sources of emissions may be able to be achieved without a meaningful reduction in business travel. For example, if a target is set on  employee commuting and business travel, it is well possible that the company achieves its target by reducing employee commuting emissions only. For business travel emissions to be meaningfully targeted, they must represent a substantial share of the scope on which a target is set. We considered a target to be business travel specific if travel emissions represent more than 75% of the emissions on which a target is set, and/or if the company clearly and explicitly detailed its plan to reduce business travel emissions as part of its broader target. 

On top of CO2, aircraft engines emit other gases – nitrous oxides, sulphur dioxide and water – and particulate matter (soot).  These are commonly referred to as non-CO2 emissions, and it is estimated that they account for two thirds of total climate warming from flying. Yet only very few companies reflect the total impact of business flights by accounting for non-CO2 effects. 

Companies should take into account the full climate warming impacts of business flying and reduce them. We found that 40 companies out of 322 are leading the way by reporting non-CO2 emissions associated with corporate flights.

The financial, consulting and pharmaceutical sectors have the best score distribution with several companies ranked A and B. The most represented sector, manufacturing, has almost only C and D scores, similarly to retail and construction. The tech sector has a few B’s but no top marks.

Companies from the three most represented countries, the US, the UK and France, rank similarly although the UK has a higher share of A companies. This can be explained by the fact that the UK has a third of companies from the financial sector.  The UK and France both have legal frameworks requiring large businesses to report annually on their greenhouse gas emissions. Many U.S. businesses annually report emissions to some degree, but there has not yet been a legal obligation with a defined standard.  

Germany, on the other hand, does not have any A or B companies. Its high share (35%) of poorly ranked manufacturing companies partially explains it, but clearly German companies from other sectors do not rank well either. A national policy would be welcome to fix this lack of transparency and commitment to reduce business travel emissions.